“Fated to Love You” Episode 4 recap

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In Korea, it’s traditional to greet your new mother-in-law with a grimace of pain.

Side dish: Do you like burgers? I had a spectacular burger this weekend, but if you like looking at spectacular burgers as much as you like eating them, have a look at Pornburger. Lucky for you, if you live near Washington DC, you can make all your burger fantasies come true by going to Bar R, a pop up by Mat Ramsey, the evil genius behind Pornburger. If you’re in the area, do it. Do it for me, who lives too far away.

Episode Recap

Trapped in a storeroom with Kim Mi Young (Jang Na Ra), the accidental mother of his baby, chaebol heir Lee Gun (Jang Hyuk) has a meltdown at this strange turn of events. Mi Young calms him down with seaweed and they spend the rest of their night bonding over their respective childhoods. Despite this, the next morning Mi Young takes off to the mainland to have an abortion, leaving a panicky Gun, Mi Young’s mom and sisters, and the two saboteurs scrambling to chase her. At the obstetrics clinic, she runs into Daniel (Choi Jin Hyuk), who advises her to think harder about her choice, but Mi Young has already made up her mind; she doesn’t want the baby to be born if it’s only going to be a burden.

Before she can go through with it, Gun shows up, but doesn’t seem to know what to do, and gets swept along with her decision. In the end, he changes his mind, runs an obstacle course through the length of the clinic and drags her out of surgery, only to be attacked by Mi Young’s family, and eventually his own grandmother. After assuring everyone that they are still pregnant, Gun agrees to take responsibility for the baby.

Mi Young’s awesome mom and Gun’s awesome grandmother sit down to negotiate terms, but Mi Young and Gun don’t want to get married since they’re not in love. The islanders decide to stick their noses in as well, but Mi Young’s mother defends her daughter from everyone (after informing them all that Mi Young is stupid and unattractive… oh, mom). After some thought, Mi Young and Gun agree to get married for the sake of the baby.

Before the wedding, a miserable Gun calls his girlfriend, Nam Se Ra (Wang Ji Won), but doesn’t manage to tell her the truth. The wedding goes ahead regardless, with Gun howling his “I do”. When it’s over, Gun goes back to the mainland, and Mi Young stays on the island, with a plan to follow shortly. Before he leaves, the two saboteurs give Gun more of the stimulant that landed him in this mess.

In the meantime, Daniel meets a candidate for his missing sister (a nurse at the obstetrics clinic, hence the random meeting with Mi Young). She’s not the one, but we do discover that his sister’s name is Kim Mi Young. Oh, reeeeeeeeeeeally…

Back at home, a drunken Gun confesses to Secretary Tak that he was never attracted to Mi Young. They open the saboteurs’ gift, and Gun finally clues in on the whole idiotic plan to entrap him. This revelation ends up as fuel to his paranoid imagination.

All unawares, Mi Young comes to join Gun, and is greeted at the airport by Secretary Tak. Gun, instead, is speaking to his doctor, having apparently lost his mind from a combination of insomnia and paranoia. Convinced that Mi Young is a snail coming to smother him, Gun ends the episode laughing insanely while a cartoon snail crawls up his back.

Comments

gosia101 쌍: “Fated to Love You” Episode 3 was amazing! I’m so happy to be a guest here again so I can share with you about how miserable Episode 4 made me.

Only 만: Aw… did the show let you down?

쌍: Yes! I was so excited to see a K-drama that had excellent pacing, good acting, a plot I could love… And then this episode happened. It started off okay, though, with the rather sweet scene between our two leads, Kim Mi Young and Lee Gun, locked in the storeroom by Mi Young’s very irritated mother. I don’t think she has let go of the half-burned enormous spoon since the last episode, and I hope she keeps whacking people with it. That’s entertainment.

만: True! They were so cute in that scene, with Gun flailing around. I especially enjoyed him freaking out over the fish eyes, then mocking her sad childhood wishes. And the bonding!

쌍: Right?? We not only got some excellent character development, but we also got to see them get more comfortable with each other. Her speech about why she couldn’t marry him was valid, and he didn’t try to talk her out of her decision. He can see that even though she is a doormat, she is a smart doormat. There is respect there, I think.

만: Or there was, up to the end, where he lost his mind. Do you think hitting his head multiple times during the clinic rescue (or whatever that was) had something to do with it? Or is it just his broken heart?

쌍: I have a soft spot for the hero rescuing the heroine, but this was too much. What’s with all the Jason Bourne moves? Couldn’t he just run into the operating theatre to stop the abortion like a normal person, instead of a circus acrobat?

만: Jang Hyuk is better known for being an athletic action star than a romantic comedy lead, so that probably had something to do with the insertion of those scenes. I kind of enjoyed the obstacle course, but yeah, it did seem pointless.

쌍: I wanted to ask you about how common it is in K-dramas to use an averted abortion as a plot device.

만: I would say not very common. This is only the second K-drama character I’ve seen who considers getting an abortion and the first one was a married woman who was a minor character.

쌍: Well, from there on things went from bad to worse not only for me, but also for poor Mi Young. I really like her, she is a sweet if slightly doormat-ish person, and I’m upset at how badly Gun is treating her. First, the wedding where he does all that yelling, and then the drunken (so, clearly, rational) decision that he has somehow been tricked into this marriage.

만: On the other hand, I can understand his bitterness. Mi Young’s brother-in-law and President Park did trick him. It’s not like their intentions were pure; they drugged him and intended to blackmail him. And in retrospect, his grandmother and Mi Young’s mother pretty much railroaded them both into getting married immediately. Mi Young’s feelings aren’t entirely apparent here, but I can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t have second thoughts in that situation. Gun’s second thoughts are just more… extreme.

쌍: You say extreme, I say lunatic. Which is too bad, because I was liking him more and more. His telephone call to Se Ra to tell her about his marriage made him look good: knowing Se Ra was about to go on stage with her first performance as a prima ballerina, he didn’t give her the harsh news so she wouldn’t be distracted. That was so thoughtful. And then… the extreme/lunatic jerk side of him emerged.

만: Come on, now! Was it all going to be sunshine and roses? We have 12 more episodes to get through! We need conflict! Plus, he’s just been railroaded into marrying a woman he doesn’t even find attractive when he’s in love with someone else. It’s bound to make him unhappy. Though, honestly, I find crazy Gun pretty entertaining, so I have no objection to him losing his mind for a little while.

쌍: You just like his crazy laugh.

만: Yep. That, and the random snails that were crawling around everywhere. I hope they make a comeback next episode.

쌍: Let’s talk about my new crush, Daniel. He’s so dreamy.

만: Ah, Choi Jin Hyuk. So cute!

쌍: And an awesome character. He again tries to help Mi Young, a complete stranger, when she’s agonizing over whether to go through with the abortion. Can he get any more dreamy?

만: He is pretty dreamy. I love how he keeps up the charade that he’s a priest because it makes her feel better.

쌍: You know that will result in hilarity soon.

만: Indeed. But, we did find out this episode that his sister’s name is also Kim Mi Young. What do you think? Is it our Mi Young?

쌍: I think it’s a red herring. We’re told Daniel’s sister has a scar on her shoulder from an accident when she was four. We saw Mi Young almost naked and there was no visible scar on her shoulder.

만: I agree; I don’t think she’s his sister. But, let’s talk about Daniel’s epic cuteness some more. How amazing is his voice?

쌍: That man should be doing voice overs for all advertising in Korea. And I hope he knows English so he can also do them in Canada; I’ll buy whatever he’s selling. I can’t wait to make googoo eyes at him again in the next episode. I hope he gets more screen time, but the end of Episode 4 suggested Episode 5 will be all about Gun and his epic angst.

만: I’m a bit of a jerk, so I’m probably going to enjoy Gun’s epic angst. I mean, it’s sad that he’s in a lot of pain, but there’s a good chance that it’s going to be pretty funny, so thumbs up to that.

쌍: What do you think will happen when Mi Young arrives at the house? Separate bedrooms?

만: Definitely. Plus, she’s a doormat in a house with an insomniac madman who thinks she tricked him, his pushy grandmother, his sneaky half-brother, and his scheming stepmom. It can only be a disaster.

쌍: I can’t wait. Plus Daniel will be there to help our heroine – again. swoon

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4 Comments

You said you only knew of one other threatened abortion in a kdrama. In Dalja’s Spring, the hostess of the home shopping network almost got one. They faked out the audience with it, and then it turned out she decided to have the baby. It’s not a common ploy however, and one that is kind of squiky to see.

The one I was thinking of was “Emergency Couple” with the two side characters whose names I never learned. I find pregnancy in general as a method of advancing the plot annoying, never mind averted abortions. If I hadn’t watched the first episode on a whim we wouldn’t be recapping it. Glad I did!